BNP sheds staff after ditching local asset classes

By Lachlan Gilbert

BNP Paribas Asset Managementhas confirmed that it has already shed some staff and will possibly lose more in the wake of its decision last week to sell off its Australian equities business toWHTM Asset Management.

“A couple of staff just moved on, a couple of others will be repositioned, but we won’t know how many, who or what until we sit down and work it out nearing completion [of the deal],” BNP managing director Alan Beasley says.

BNP decided to offload its Australian asset business after deciding to concentrate only on global investment.

“We looked at our position here and what we do best in Australia, and that is the marketing and distribution of our international product set, which is what we do globally very well,” Beasley says.

“The flip side of that is that WHTM provides financial services and asset products in Australian asset classes very well. WHTM was chosen because it had a very similar strategy to us; a growth style with a bias towards small caps.”

Beasley says several organisations had approached the fund manager about its Australian equities business, but it had never previously signalled that it was wanting to sell.

“We said no for a long time, then we focused on what we do best, so we waited for the most appropriate bidder,” he says.

WHTM has more than $500 million under management, and has achieved returns of 11.3 per cent per annum in the past two years, almost three times the InTech Research average for Australian shares funds of 4.3 per cent.

The restructure will be completed next month.